Windows Autopilot Hybrid Microsoft Entra Join — Part 1: Infrastructure Preparation and Configuration

Estimated reading and study time: 60–80 minutes. Allow time to review 67 slides, inspect the evidence and absorb the concepts. This estimate excludes reproducing the procedures and waiting for installation, synchronization or policy delivery.

Part 1 documents infrastructure preparation for a Windows Autopilot Hybrid Microsoft Entra Join lab. It covers AD DS and Entra Connect, the Intune Connector for Active Directory, device targeting and deployment profiles, VMware preparation, hardware hash registration and network checks. Read the sequence as the preparation phase before an endpoint enters Autopilot.

The walkthrough ends at the pre-Autopilot snapshot. Actual deployment, enrollment and Hybrid Join validation belong to Part 2. Configuration screenshots do not establish that those later stages succeeded.

Related learning: Start with the Autopilot Hybrid conceptual guide and general deployment readiness. Continue with Part 2: OOBE Execution and Verification for the execution evidence, including its explicit warning that continuity between this VMware baseline and the later Hyper-V environment is unconfirmed.

Official documentation: Use Microsoft’s Hybrid enrollment and connector requirements, manual device registration instructions and deployment profile guidance. Review the current Autopilot requirements and Entra join recommendation when selecting a deployment architecture.